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(No Model.)

O. P. CHIGKERING.

PIANO FORTE.

No. 350,292. Patents d Oct. 5, 1886i wmv N. PETERS. Plwcb-Lixho n hor. Wzihmgtom u.'c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES FRANCIS CHIGKERING, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PlANO FORTE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 350,292, dated October 5, 1886.

Application filed July 26, 1886.

To (ZZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES FRANCIS OHIoxEnrNG, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Piano-Fortes; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l is a top view, and Fig. 2a sectional View, of part of the iron string-frame of a grand piano-forte with my invention applied thereto, and to one or more of the string supporting agrat'fes, the object of the improvement being to afford to the said agraffes a counter-support against the upward strain of the strings upon them.

In carrying out my said invention I do not have, as usual, the wrist-pin and agraffe-support piece integral with the string sustaining iron or metallic frame, but apiece or bar of metal separate from the said frame, and extending under and secured to it by screws or other suitable means and I also have to the frame a bar abutment or extension to go directly over and bear on the heads or upper ends of the several agraffes, in order to hold them against the upward strain of the strings going through them.

My invention saves the necessity of having the metallic frame open, as it usuallyis, to admit of the insertion of the agraffes into it after it is in place in the instrument, such construction of the frame rendering it weak and not so good a support of the agraifes as it is with my improvement.

In the drawings, A denotes part of the iron frame for sustaining the strings of a grand piano.

Serial No. 209,104. (No modelz) Bis the agraffe-support piece, which,though in a separate piece from such iron frame, ex tends underneath it, and is secured to it by screws or other suitable means. 0 is an agraffe screwed into the said support-piece, while D is a string wound about a wrist or straining pin, E, extending up from and inserted in the support-piece, such string going through the agraffe, to which it inclines from the straining-pin, and thence proceeds horizontally at an obtuse angle, the vertex of which is at the agraffe.

From the iron frame there projects directly over and upon the heads or upper ends of the agraffes a bar or abutment, F.

The strain of the string tending to force upward each agraffe and its support-piece will be counteracted by the iron frame and the said addition F thereto, which I prefer to have integral or in one piece with such frame.

Before the iron frame is inserted in the piano-frame the agraffe-support piece,with the agraffes fixed in it, is placed within the latter frame, the iron frame being next arranged and fastened into the body of the instrument and to the said support-piece.

I claim- In a pianoiorte, the combination of the agraffe-support piece separate from the stringsustaining metallic frame with such frame, provided with an abutment or bar to extend over and rest upon the upper ends of the agraffes, all being substantially and for the purpose as set forth.

' CHARLES FRANCIS CIIIOKERING.

W'itnesses:

E. G. G-OTTSCHALK, SAML. V. SPEYER. 

